:::snip:::
However, it is more than simply the purported obsolescence of the iPod family. This is also about new models of owning and accessing music.
Once Upon A Distant Time, when you bought a vinyl record, or a CD, you owned it, and - as long as you did not seek to make a profit from playing it publicly - you could play it when and where you liked.
And when it wore out, or we lost it in a fire, or we sold it... our rights ended then and there. We owned the object (do you want paper or plastic?), not the words or sounds imprinted upon it.
However, the old nexus, or connection between recording companies and availability of music was destroyed with the development of iTunes
Nowadays, with the advent of not just iTunes, but the whole idea of migrating content to the Cloud, Apple is seeking to persuade individuals to adopt a new form of music ownership, where you pay 'rental' for access to data you have stored, and where even your access to that data is conditional, rather than absolute.
In other words, under the new system, once you buy the music, you do not 'own' it, and nor do you have the right to play it endlessly as you did with a vinyl LP, or a CD.
No need to blame iTunes, it's just a recent example. Copyright holders (and patent owners) have been selling limited-rights licenses with no physical object attached going back centuries - the right to perform in public, the right to include a song in a movie soundtrack, the right to print an edition in another language, the right to play on the radio or show on TV...
When you couch the debate in terms like "music ownership," yeah, the download/subscription model seems a tough pill to swallow. You pay all that money, and what do you have to show for it? Thoughts and emotions; mind and spirit.
From my perspective, I never owned it, so nothing changes. To me, it's little different than a concert or theater ticket; gone when you leave the hall. The music belongs to the composer, the words stay with the author, the performance is the performers'.
Instead, you merely acquire the right to rent it, both as a download and as something stored on the Cloud. This model - sold to youngsters as 'cool and as a 'space-saving' idea (who but old fogies, old curmudgeons - such as myself - really wants to keep all of their antique music collections on one device?) will offer a means of generating endless capital and profit as you will have to continually pay to access your own music.
This is the future that Apple is chasing, and is - to my mind - the real reason that the iPod is being discontinued and starved of resources for further and future development.
From the standpoint of a person who lost his black vinyl in a divorce, much of his print library in various downsizes and moves, and has worn out multiple copies of The Lord of the Rings... I actually like this future - it's far cheaper than re-acquiring what I used to "own" and replacing what's been damaged... and then there's my endless musical bucket list.
$9.99/month to use the musical equivalent of the Great Library of Alexandria? Compared to a single movie ticket or $99 for a
day at Walt Disney World? Compared to my phone bill, cable TV, rent, car payments? It's cheap. And on top of that, I get an off-premises backup of all the CDs I own, and the convenience of having that entire library available wherever I go (regardless of the capacity of whatever device I'm using).
How does any of this fit into the supposed demise of iPod? Everything on Apple Music can be downloaded to iTunes and synced onto iPod, and if it's a Touch, you can also stream live whenever you have a Wi-Fi connection. Nothing changes, no new equipment is needed. The only difference is, if you want to download a song, it won't cost you $1.29 - you're now on the all-you-can-eat plan. iPod owners are all potentially Apple Music subscribers, especially if they currently spend more than $9.99/month on iTunes. If Apple pulls the plug on iPod it'll be because people have stopped buying iPods in favor of other Apple devices that include a music player (is there an Apple device that doesn't have a music player?). End of story.
